The Hedgehog and The King
by graciewrites-stories
Summary: Gwen is a daughter of Eve, or she was, until Aslan turned her into a hedgehog as punishment for a huge mishap involving mice and Aslan's tent. But even more problems arise when she befriends King Edmund and they grow up together during the Golden Age of him and his siblings rule. After a while she finds herself falling for him, which brings about a whole new set of problems.
1. Chapter 1

Gwen crept around Aslan's camp, trying to find the mice. Oreius had charged her with taking care of them while they prepared for battle, but she was afraid she had lost them. They were rather mischievous and Gwen believed they got a kick out of seeing her annoyed. She tip-toed around the tents, stepping over the sleeping centaurs and cheetahs, softly whispering, "Here, mice...good mice...come out wherever you are..." When the mice still didn't show up she rubbed her forehead. What was she doing? Why was she here, hunting for mice, and not out there preparing for battle? "Come on! I bet the cats out there are hungry! If you don't come out by the time I count to three -"

A mouse popped up, a look of outrage on its face. "You wouldn't!" it cried.

"Aha!" Gwen snatched the mouse and all the others rushed out to rescue their comrade. The mouse squirmed in her hands. "Come on guys, why can't you just sit still? Oreius told me to take care of you."

"I won't be Daughter of Eve-handled!" the mouse cried, jumping out of her hands and running away.

Gwen shrieked, picking up her skirts and running after them, knocking over weapons and waking up the minotaurs, who weren't too happy about it. She chased the mice all the way until they disappeared inside Aslan's tent. She groaned, and popped her head inside, prepared to explain herself to the Lion himself, but sighed in relief when she saw he wasn't inside. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she crept in and looked around. "Mice! I'm not going to hurt you. You're going to get me in trouble!" There was a torch on one side of the tent, illuminating the small space, but even in the light she couldn't tell where the mice went. The room was small, but roomy, with only a bed and the torch on the wall. She spotted a flash of tail disappearing behind the bed and she smiled, jumping and catching the mice in her arms. "You guys are coming back with me!"

"Let us go!" one squeaked, nibbling at her hand.

Gwen's stomach dropped when she heard a commotion just outside the tent doorway. Panicked, she ran for it, accidentally knocking over the torch, setting fire to the tent. Master Centaur stared at her as the tent slowly burned to the ground and even the mice stopped squirming to stare at the tent in disbelief. There was a light cough behind her and she reluctantly turned around to come face to face with Aslan. The mice gulped and jumped out of Gwen's limp arms, scurrying down her skirts and out of sight. "I can explain -!" Gwen cried.

"It was a simple job!" Oreius cried, his nostrils flaring.

"Peace, Oreius." Aslan said. He focused his attention on Gwen. "Because you have been unable to take your time with anything, there is only one thing to do for you." He breathed on her and she started to feel a tingling all up her arms and spine and the world started to grow smaller and smaller. Her voice grew higher until it finally stopped and someone handed her a mirror. She screamed when she saw the hedgehog screaming back at her.

"A hedgehog!? REALLY?!"

Aslan ignored as he commissioned someone in the crowd to make him a new tent. "You have a lesson to learn, Gwendoline. Learn it well and I will return you to human form."

"What lesson!?"

Aslan smiled to himself and stalked away.


	2. Chapter 2

Gwen bitterly sat on the edge of her new hedgehog bed. It wasn't even a bed, more like an old rug. The mice sat in a corner playing cards, snickering at her. "Can't hurt us now, can ya?" they cackled.

"Oh, shut up." She hugged herself and glared.

The only female mouse of the group, named Fiona, perked up. "Ooh! Someone's coming. I think it might be visitors!" They scurried outside and Gwen hobbled after them with her short hedgehog legs. "HEY! Wait for me!" Once outside they observed the visitors, three young _humans_ dressed in funny clothing. Gwen's eyes brightened. A human! Finally someone like herself! She glanced down at her hedgehog form and sighed. Okay maybe not exactly like herself. There were two girls and a boy, which Aslan introduced as being Lucy, Susan, and Peter.

"Wait..." Fiona whispered to the others. "Are those...the queens and kings from the prophecy?!"

"There's supposed to be four." the other mice whispered back to her.

Gwen turned to the mice. "What prophecy?"

"Two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve are supposed to come to Narnia and defeat the White Witch in battle, but there's only three here, not four." Fiona the mouse explained.

"...but where is the fourth?" questioned Aslan.

"We got into a little trouble along the way." explained Susan.

Fiona put a hand to her heart. "Oh, those poor dears."

Gwen nodded. "Yeah, that sucks."

They talked for a bit longer until Aslan suddenly turned to Gwen. "Will you show the Daughters of Eve where they will rest for the night?" It seemed more of a demand than a question, so Gwen complied, leading Lucy and Susan to their tent. Lucky noticed the burnt tent tossed into a heap. "What happened here?" she asked Gwen.

"Urm..." Gwen hesitated. "Slight accident with the mice."

"I see."

Gwen glanced over her shoulder and noted how sad they looked. She hobbled over and patted Susan's shoe. "Don't worry, I'm sure Aslan will find a way to get your brother back." Susan smiled at her gratefully and Lucy sniffled. "No, don't cry!" She hobbled over to the chest in their tent and pushed it open. "Look, I'm sure you guys have never even seen clothes like these before."

Lucy looked mildly intrigued by the gowns and pulled one out. "Susan, they're gorgeous." she sighed.

"Can we try them on?" Susan asked.

"Of course. You're gonna be here a while."

They giggled and began pulling out the gowns and helping each other into them, and Gwen crept away to leave them to it.

"You look proud of yourself." Fiona said once Gwen walked back into their mini tent. "Glad to have some humans around?"

"Eh." Gwen shrugged. "Maybe they'll make things more interesting around here."


	3. Chapter 3

Days past, and while Gwen was busy sun-bathing atop one of the tents, the rest of the camp was busy preparing for battle, even the human visitors. There was a wolf attack on the Daughters of Eve the other day and a small band team had just returned from a raid on the Witch's camp, bringing back the humans' brother as well, which made young Lucy so much happier. Gwen shifted her position and gazed out onto the creatures on the ground. Her gaze fell on the fourth human, the brother, who was currently trying to ride Philip. Fiona said he fulfilled some sort of prophecy, but she found it hard to believe that this skinny little black haired kid would be a king. He couldn't have been any older than 13. Well, who was she to judge? She wasn't much younger than him and she was now a hedgehog. Impossible things happen in this world!

Fiona scurried up the tent pole to sit beside Gwen under the sun. She nudged her with her paw. "He's pretty cute."

"Ew." Gwen said, shuddering.

"What you don't think he's cute?"

"He's a child. You're like, what, hundred years old?"

"I'm six years old in mouse years. What's so bad about that?"

"You're basically gonna die soon."

"Wow, Gwen. Way to spoil my fun."

"Don't perv out on children, Fi."

Fiona threw up her paws. "Alright, fine! But I tell you when he grows up, you're gonna tell me I was right."

"Trust me, I won't."

They sat side by side and relaxed until evening. Fiona and Gwen were playing cards when a dryad floating by the tent crying. Mrs. Beaver approached her. "What happened?"

"I bring grave news from the Daughters of Eve." she sighed. Gwen and Fiona held paws as the dryad told them about Aslan's death.

"Oh no..." Gwen sighed. "Now how am I going to turn human?" Everyone glared at her.

"What are we going to do!?" one of the cheetahs cried in despair.

"We will go to battle and hope Aslan knows what he's doing." Peter said, suddenly standing with the group. "So be ready. We'll need all the help we can get." He looked down at Gwen, Fiona, and the other mice pointedly.

Gwen glanced around. "He doesn't mean us, right?"


	4. Chapter 4

As Gwen predicted, Peter did mean them and if you're wondering how it's possible for a hedgehog and mice to fight in a battle, let's just say those quills are sharp and Reepicheep wasn't the only mouse who can hold a sword. While I won't go into all the events of the battle, I'm sure you already know it was a success and wouldn't make sense to retell it all here. The White Witch was defeated, the Pevensies were named kings and queens and all was happy and good in Narnia. As for our lead, Gwen is still a hedgehog, but it wasn't as if she didn't try to be turned back.

Gwen crept over to Aslan as he stood proudly at the coronation. "Hey, you know," she whispered. "I sure was brave during that battle, wasn't I?"

"Indeed" was the Lion's reply.

"Brave enough to be turned back into a human?" she prodded, hopefully.

He looked at her blankly. "No."

"Aw, come on!" Gwen whined.

"You haven't learned your lesson."

"And that lesson is...?" But the Lion was already walking away from her. "Lesson! What lesson is he even talking about?" the hedgehog muttered, rejoining the mice at the coronation buffet. Fiona was sitting in Mr. Tumnus's glass of wine when she approached and Mr. Tumnus was looking at it with disdain.

"...and then I just wiped that giant out!" Fiona was saying. "With my bare hands, just Fiona the giant slayer." Mr. Tumnus was nodding along but he looked at Gwen with wide eyes, begging to be released from this conversation. He was saved by Queen Lucy pulling him away to talk with the Beavers. "Alright!" called Fiona. "Talk more next time!" Gwen climbed up the table and sat beside her. "Isn't this great? We're battle scorn heroes now! We saved Narnia!"

Gwen shook her head at her friends enthusiasm. "War isn't that great, Fi. Trust me."

"I know, but this one was pretty epic. I mean, the swords and the bows and arrows..."

"Where I'm from there are no swordfights, just guns. You don't even have time to react before you're gone." Gwen shuddered, recalling the war back at home in England and the whole reason why she was even here. If she hadn't been sent away to live at the professor's mansion, she wouldn't have discovered the wardrobe and would have never found this magical place.

Fiona sighed. "That does sound pretty terrible."

"Worse."

Fiona hesitated, unsure what to say to her friend but then was distracted by Kings standing off to the side. "The Kings are free! Let's go talk to them." She grabbed Gwen's hand and dragged her across the table toward the Narnian monarchs. "Excuse me." she said with a little cough.

"Oh, hello there." King Peter said with a smile.

Fiona shoved Gwen, who sighed. "Congrats on your, uh, coronation and stuff. That must be pretty great."

"Well," King Peter said with a shrug. "It's something I could get used to. I don't think back home I'd even dream of being a king."

Gwen nodded. "I know what you mean." Peter squinted at her in slight confusion, before Fiona butted in.

"Who came up with the titles?" she asked, leaning against his arm. "Because 'magnificent' reeeaaally suits you." King Edmund snorted.

Peter smiled kindly at her. "Well, thank you." He turned to Edmund. "Finally someone notices."

Edmund rolled his eyes and turned to Fiona. "As if he doesn't have enough ego already!"

Gwen cackled. "Tell me about it." She grabbed a berry from the fruit platter and popped it into her mouth. "So, what are you guys going to do now that you're kings?"

Edmund shrugged. "I guess we'll just rule."

"More specifically," Peter said, cutting his brother off. "Sign legal documents, visit with the people, rebuild infrastructure; all that good stuff."

Edmund nodded. "What he said."

Fiona sighed dreamily. "Wow, you're going to be such a good king..."

"Thank you, good citizen." Peter said, puffing out his chest.

"Okay, okay," Edmund said, pushing his brother away. "We're going to go before my brother's head explodes."

Fiona grinned at her friend. "And that's how it's done." Gwen shook her head.


	5. Chapter 5

It seemed everyone had settled into the lull of normality. Dignitaries visited from across the land and Cair Paravel become the center for all the best parties. Everyone loved King Peter and Queen Susan and they bathed in the attention, while it seemed like King Edmund and Queen Lucy were the ones left to do the real work. Being a king was definitely not what the White Witch had told Edmund it would be like, but given that it was the White Witch, he decided to take everything she said with a grain of salt. He was jealous, however, that his older brother seemed to be getting most of the royal treatment and left him to do all the work, and oftentimes looked for an escape by wandering the forests that surrounded the castle.

On one of these forest strolls, it just so happened that Gwen was out for one of her own walks to escape Fiona's endless ramblings about how wonderful King Peter was. Using the fallen logs as a way to keep her balance, she strolled along the beaten forest paths, the wind rustling the leaves. She picked off a berry from a bush as she passed and popped it into her mouth. One thing she could never get used to about Narnia was how immensely beautiful it was. She gazed up into the treetops, waving to a dryad as she danced by. A snap of a twig brought her back to reality and she froze, her quills standing on end. "Who's there?" she called into the trees.

The bushes parted and King Edmund stumbled out, dazed and irritated. Gwen put a paw to mouth to hide her laugh. "What happened to you?"

Edmund sniffed. "Well, _apparently_ the forest animals are fans as well." Without waiting for Gwen's response, he continued his rant. "I can never get used to this! Back in Finchley I was just some kid, now I'm a king! With _fans_!" He sighed as he inspected his torn sleeve. "Vicious ones." Finally he noticed Gwen sitting there. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your name at the party."

Gwen smiled awkwardly. "Gwen. It's short for Gwendoline." She quickly added, "If it helps, I'm not a fan." She immediately realized the rudeness of her comment, but to her surprise, Edmund seemed relieved.

"Oh, good!" He laughed. "I left my pen and paper behind, anyway."

Gwen hesitated when she glanced at his tattered shirt. "I can fix that." She heard herself saying.

King Edmund raised an eyebrow at her. "You can sew?"

"I like to think I'm good at it, too."

He thought this over. "How much do you want?"

Gwen shook her head. "No charge, just...helping a fellow Narnian." She was about to say "human" before she remembered her current form and reminded herself to smack Aslan the moment he gets back.

Edmund smiled gratefully at her. "Thank you, Gwendoline."

"Gwen." She interjected.

He nodded and shook her paw. "It's a deal, _Gwen_."


	6. Chapter 6

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Fiona paced around the room. Trufflehunter the Badger had helped them move into their own home in the forest and even Gwen couldn't help but love their little hole in a tree dwelling; it was the perfect size for a hedgehog and a mouse. Fiona collapsed on the nearest chair. "So let me get this straight, you offered to fix King Edmund the Just's shirt - for no charge, might I add - and he said yes!? How did you pull that off?"

Gwen shrugged. Strangely she felt if she told Fiona the details of the conversation she would be betraying Edmund's trust, especially considering how she told him she wasn't a fan. But Fiona was, so she kept her lips sealed. "I guess he just liked me, that's all."

Fiona sighed. "Oh, how I envy you..."

Gwen snorted. "Why? You're a Peter fan remember? This is Edmund; he's the grumpy one."

"But he's still a king! You're friends with royalty!"

"I wouldn't say we're friends...more like acquaintances."

There was a moment of brief silence before Fiona said, "Can I see it?"

"See what?" Gwen frowned. "Oh, the shirt."

"Just for a moment!" Fiona pleaded.

Gwen squinted at her and held the bag with the shirt protectively. "How do I know you won't do some weird fangirl king-summoning ritual with it?"

Fiona rolled her eyes. "Come on, Gwen. You know I'd only do that if it was King Peter's shirt."

"He probably hugged Edmund while he wore it!" Gwen retorted, but relented, handing her friend the shirt. "Careful, I'm supposed to fix it, not destroy it more."

Fiona held the shirt cautiously before quizzically wondering, "How are you going to give it back when you're done?"

Gwen hadn't thought about this.

"Come on!" Gwen yelled when she was thrown out of Cair Paravel by the centaur guards. "I swear I know him!"

"Yeah," The centaur said, shaking his head and closing the gate in her face. "They all say that."

"Go ask him yourself! We _met_!" Gwen protested, banging on the gate.

"Get lost, hedgehog." The guard said grumpily. "Or I'll call a minotaur to escort you off the premises."

Gwen grunted in frustration. If only she was a human they would _listen_ to her. Just as she was about to turn away and head back home, a familiar voice came from behind the gate. "Guards, what is this?" King Edmund cried, annoyance clear in his voice. "This isn't how we treat citizens." He unlocked the gate and let Gwen through, who stuck her tongue out as she passed the centaur.

"Your Majesty, it's just another overeager fan - " the centaur started to protest.

"Enough." The Just King said, bending down to scoop up Gwen into his hand. "She's my friend."

The centaur glared at Gwen but bowed. "As you wish."

As they walked inside, Edmund smirked. "Being king has its perks."

Gwen laughed. "Thanks for letting me in." She handed the bag to him. "I finished it; good as new!"

Edmund set Gwen down to admire her handiwork and shook his head slowly. "You're right." he said. "You wouldn't even know it was ripped." He bent down to be eye level with her. "I don't know how to thank you." Before Gwen could reply, Lucy and Susan strolled in.

"Ed!" Lucy cried. "We were just about to go for a picnic."

"You must join us." finished Susan. She noticed Gwen and her eyes lit up. "Oh my gosh!" She rushed over and scooped the hedgehog up. "You're the little hedgehog from before!"

"I don't think we ever found out your name." Lucy said sadly.

"Gwen, your Majesty."

"Well, Gwen, you must join us and Ed for that picnic." Susan said formally.

Gwen's eyes widened. "Oh, I couldn't - "

"We insist." cut in Edmund. "It's the least we could do."

"Um..." Gwen glanced back and forth between the three Pevensies. "I...guess I could."

Lucy clapped her hands. "Wonderful! I'll go get the basket." She picked up her skirts and rushed off. Edmund stretched out his arm and Gwen scrambled on, sitting comfortably on his shoulder. She could get used to this.


End file.
